One wonders how many auto race track operators will be the first to follow the lead of The Milwaukee Mile and the Oakland A’s, in setting aside a section of its preferred seats at the famed one-mile oval and at McAfee Coliseum which offer unobstructed view of the action, plus all you can eat? In California the $35 seat ticket includes unlimited hot dogs, nachos, peanuts, popcorn, soda and ice cream. The edibles are hand-delivered by vendors circulating through the calorific viewing area. And The Milwaukee Mile also is up on the appeal of food and drink, announcing “All-You-Can Eat” sections for each 2008 auto race at the historic track. To be known as Club Four, offered will be unlimited brats, hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and pickles along with Coca-Cola and Miller Beer products. Prices start at $40. Another food-oriented sporting event is the annual “Gut Check” at N.C. State U. It’s the Krispy Kreme Challenge — now in its fourth year — which calls for a two-mile run from the N.C. State Belltower to the local Krispy Kreme, consumption of a dozen doughnuts, followed by a two-mile run back to the Belltower, all within a two-hour time limit. All profits go to charity.
 
The hearty appetites of race fans has also come to the attention of the Steak-Umm chain which recently agreed to varying sponsorship of the DEI No. 8 car to be driven by Mark Martin, and primary sponsor of DEI’s No. 01 car to be driven in selected races by Regan Smith.

This year’s running of the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona Grand-Am sports-car race was notable for the many four-driver teams that finished well, along with the obvious superiority of the Riley Daytona Prototype chassis. Though a Lexus engine powered the winning car, Pontiac-engined vehicles dominated the top 10 finishing positions. But are they really Pontiac engines? I’d wager this power unit is the celebrated Chevy small-block V8 that has performed so well on race tracks since its 1955 debut. And Mazda comes in for credit as well, winning GT class honors over Porsche. The crowd for the Rolex 24 looked off from past years. The huge Ferris wheel erected in the infield was shown several times slowly rotating on the race telecast but never did we see a passenger aboard.

Despite having two staff writers assigned to motorsport, the New York Times’ 12-page Sunday sports section failed to carry a single word or status report on the Rolex 24. And Monday’s N.Y. Times was almost as bad, citing only a third-straight triumph by Team Ganassi, listing only the winner and no other finishers in its three-paragraph report. 

Thanks to the invitation of Driving Impressions owner Bob Zecca, an engaging Saturday evening was spent at the Packanack Lake Country Club in Wayne, N.J., with members of the Northern New Jersey Region, SCCA, at its annual bash. Surprising, and somewhat disappointing, was the “grey look” of the 100 or so NNJR SCCA members present. Where are today’s young members? Regional Executive Darrell Anthony admitted the region membership count is down — as is the national total — and shares my wonderment as to why. It was pleasing to Ye Ed to see each regional member officially thanked for their 2007 efforts on behalf of the region receive a copy of “Let ’Em All Go,” my book about racing with emphasis on New Jersey. Special recognition for the night’s success goes to long-term official Dave Panas and to the region’s Worker of the Year Bill Etherlington. A busy 2008 season is planned for the region with significant events at the new N.J. Motorsports Park now nearing completion in Millville, N.J.

During this “off season” fan clubs often take center stage. The St. Louis Auto Racing Fan Club recently ran a Remembrance of Lake Hill Speedway, which attracted a large group of members and also revealed the poetic skills of member Rick Russell, who authored the 14-verse Remembering Lake Hill poem sung at the club’s 52nd annual banquet Jan. 5. In Ohio, from the Dayton Auto Race Fan Club’s Fast Times! Newsletter, we learn the club has initiated a lifetime recognition program and named seven members to lifetime member status. The club’s January newsletter also reminded newer members that it was member Jim Cushman who was the first person to mount a wing atop his racing stocker back in the 1950s. From that newsletter we also learn the first victory by a Ford car in NASCAR’s premier division was by Buckeye Jim Florian on June 25, 1950, at the Dayton Speedway. The car’s owner, Euclid Ford, then gave it to the Dayton Police Dep’t which put it in its active fleet, reflecting its “stock” status which was revealed after an eight-hour post-race inspection after rivals felt there was no way a flathead Ford could have outraced its OHV rivals. It was also that race, at which winner Florian exited his sizzling Ford bare chested, that NASCAR instituted its first clothing regulation, henceforth requiring all drivers to wear shirts while racing.

When the inaugural race at the now under-construction Dragway @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., comes off Sept. 11-14, it will be a major NHRA POWERade event, says Speedway Motorsports Chairman Bruton Smith. This will set up a regional rivalry for area drag-racing prominence between the long-established Rockingham, N.C., Dragway, a key IHRA facility only 90 miles distant. It will be interesting to see if the new Concord NHRA strip will be able to operate weekly as does Rockingham, as the new Lowe’s dragway is much closer to a residential area than Rockingham.   

When the green flag waves over the first race on March 22 at Irwindale Speedway, it will mark 10 years of operation for this ultra-modern Southern California high-banked asphalt bowl.

A final settlement has been reached between NASCAR’s insurance company and Joseph Woodward of Sanford, Fla., who lost his wife and six-month-old son when a NASCAR plane crashed into their home while trying to make an emergency landing on July 10, 2007, killing pilot Mike Klem and Dr. Bruce Kennedy. Terms of the settlement were not made public, however it was revealed college tuition and other educational expenses for his four-year-old daughter will be paid. Woodward and his daughter narrowly missed being in the house when the twin-engine Cessna 310 crashed into two homes while trying to land at Orlando Int’l Airport.

Now that U.S. auto sales for 2007 have been tabulated, figures reveal Toyota has outdone Ford to become the No. 2 U.S. car choice, ending Ford’s seven-year hold on that placing. GM, of course, is No. 1 in this country as it has been for years, with sales of 3.82 million vehicles in 2007, while Toyota sold 2.62 million cars and trucks to Ford’s 2.572 million units. Toyota’s sales were up three percent for the year while Ford’s dropped 12 percent. GM’s sales fell 6 percent, but it remained as the U.S. sales leader. Another interesting facet of 2007 U.S. auto sales is the disappearance of silver as the No. 1 color choice after seven years of prominence. The No. 1 car color choice for 2007 changed to white, says the report.